JC Raceteknik and EKS join forces for 2021 and beyond.

PHOTO CREDIT: JC Raceteknik.

Reigning FIA World Rallycross Teams' Champions JC Raceteknik have announced a merger with Mattias Ekström's EKS for 2021 and beyond.

The merger between the two Swedish squads comes off the back of a successful 2020 FIA World Rallycross Championship campaign, which saw Mattias Ekström get the late call-up to replace Janis Baumanis at KYB Team JC. 

Whilst Ekström claimed two wins on course to claim second place in the drivers' championship. The Swede later announced that will not return to the World RX championship in 2021, as he aims to focus solely on the Extreme E series.

The two-time DTM Champion and 2016 World RX Drivers' Champion Ekström established the EKS RX in 2014 and went on to win both the Drivers' and Teams' titles in 2016.

Having stopped rallycross operations in 2018, the EKS squad returned a year later but not as an entrant, instead, they would provide maintenance and support to the Monster Energy RX Cartel who hired two Audi S1's for the 2019 season. 

In 2019, JC Raceteknik acquired a 2017 specification EKS Audi S1 Supercar, which they raced in the European Rallycross Championship with Robin Larsson at the wheel. Larsson went on to win the championship and thus earned a seat in the World Rallycross Championship for a one-off round.

Following the completion of the 2019 World RX season, JC Raceteknik announced the acquisition of two Audi S1 Quattro's and entered them in the World RX championship in 2020. Having announced their line-up, things soon changed due to the coronavirus pandemic seeing Mattias Ekstrom make a surprising return alongside Robin Larsson for the season. The Swedish duo went on to win the teams' championship for KYB Team JC.

"I founded the EKS team in 2014 with an ambition to win races and championships, and we achieved that in 2016, by winning Driver’s and Team’s titles. And during the 2019 & 2020 JC Raceteknik have taken our cars to the top of Nordic, European and World championships," Mattias Ekström said.

Joel Christoffersson believes that a shared mindset and attitude are the main reasons for the collaboration between JC Raceteknik and EKS for the foreseeable future.

"Me and Mattias share the same mindset and attitude for the sport. This is one of the main reasons why our cooperation has been so successful so far and that has become a solid foundation for joining forces for the future," Joel Christoffersson, the founder of JC Raceteknik, said.

The newly founded collaboration between the two Swedish teams will be headed up by Joel Christoffersson as Team Principal from his base in Kil, Sweden.

"From now on Joel will take care of all the EKS and JC Raceteknik joint racing projects – rallycross, rally, cross karts, and anything else we come up with," Ekström said.

The 42-year-old champion adds that EKS JC is evaluating the future of electric racing and aims to run electric cars in the near future. 

"We are also looking into the future of electric racing and sooner than later there will be a race car in our workshop that is purely driven by electricity," the Swede said.

Christoffersson has confirmed that the EKS JC will return to the FIA World Rallycross Championship in 2021, but has not confirmed the driver line-up as yet.

"For 2021 for sure we want to focus on FIA WorldRX and we want to win not only the Team’s title, but a Driver’s one as well. We are also looking into more projects to expand our operation in multiple disciplines," he said.

Ekström will drive a Skoda Fabia R5 in the newly rebranded EKS JC team in the Arctic Rally Finland World Rally Championship round at the end of this month. 

Written By - Junaid Samodien